Petraeus Downplays Afghan Drawdown

Speaking today on National Public Radio, top Afghan commander Gen. David Petraeus reiterated just how slowly NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan would go, insisting that there was not going to be a “lights out” moment.

But instead of claiming the illusory “progress” in the NPR interview like he so often does, Petraeus instead conceded that the Taliban were making inroad in northern Afghanistan, a region in which they had an extremely limited presence before the 2001 US invasion.